Experimental evaluation of structures

Experimental evaluation of structures

Characterization and experimental study of structures and structural elements for building and civil works.

Monitoring of structures

Through facilities in which different tests are carried out, several of them accredited by ENAC, the objective is to:

• Verification of prefabricated structural elements.
• Approval of components for railway infrastructure.
• Analysis of the dynamic behaviour of structural elements.
• Fatigue study of supports, fasteners and other elements in the construction industry, determining their useful life.
• Cooperation in the design of new elements for use in construction, based on materials such as carbon fibre, glass and others.
• Monitoring of structures in situ and in the laboratory.
• Support in test instrumentation and internal calibration of loading equipment, in other IETcc laboratories.

The Structural Testing Unit is oriented to the characterization and experimental study of structures and structural elements, both for building and civil works.

We can mention the study of prefabricated elements such as reinforced and prestressed beams for floors, slabs, columns and panels, in order to determine their mechanical characteristics and behaviour under different solicitations.

The reproduction of reinforced concrete elements built “in situ” in order to verify by means of tests their structural behaviour and to obtain information about the mechanisms of breakage is also part of its activities,

It also studies the dynamic and fatigue behaviour of structural, support or fixing elements (anchors, neoprene, etc.) and others in the railway industry, determining their useful life as well as the evolution of their mechanical characteristics over time (sleepers, blocks, slabs and fasteners).

As a research centre, R&D activities are carried out in the laboratory, in cooperation with other European laboratories, in the field of new materials and their application to the construction industry, both in the reinforcement of structures and in the design of new elements based on them.

For all this we have a team with extensive experience and training and facilities equipped with the most modern techniques in terms of equipment for applying loads, data collection and study and processing of results.